In the manufacture of bricks, a clay type soil composition and certain other additives are mixed together in an extrusion mill to produce a continuous uncured brick extrusion. Typically, in one conventional type of brick producing operation, the continuous extrusion of brick material is cut into slugs and each slug is then pushed through a cutter assembly to produce a row of cut bricks. Successive rows of cut brick are then pushed together to form a group of bricks and by the employment of a conventional gripper assembly, the group of bricks, is transferred and stacked onto a kiln car and then directed through a curing and drying chamber.
Capacity and efficiency is of a principal concern in brick manufacturing plants. To increase efficiency and the number of bricks produced per hour, it is known to double stack the individual cut slugs prior to cutting the same in order to produce a two course high row of bricks from each pair of slugs pushed through the cutter assembly. Also, it is known to stack a group of cut brick on top of a like group of cut brick subsequent to the cutting operation to form a two course high stack of brick prior to the transfer of the stack or group of bricks in the kiln car. It is thusly appreciated by forming two course high brick stacks prior to setting or transferring the formed stack to the kiln car, that the cycling of the setter or gripper assembly is reduced for a given number of bricks. Generally this gives rise to increased capacity and brick producing efficiency.
However, many of the conventional slug stackers and stackers for stacking cut brick rows during the brick hacking operation have been complicated, difficult to maintain, and generally been less than satisfactory. For example, many devices used to stack one course of cut brick on top of another like course of brick is referred to as an inverter because such is provided with the capability to invert a particular course of brick being stacked in order to appropriately orient the face of the bricks to gain a desired appearance during the curing and drying operation. This inversion is time consuming and obviously the mechanical provision therefor complicates the stacking apparatus and the controls therefor.
In addition, where texturizing of the bricks is to be performed, it is desirable to perform the texturizing about the face of the bricks after cutting, but prior to the bricks being stacked on the kiln car for curing and drying. Where one course is disposed atop another course, it obviously follows that the brick faces of courses stacked underneath another course are not exposed and consequently cannot be directly texturized after stacking. Thus, with conventional slugs and brick row stackers, texturizing is difficult and in some cases impossible where the total apparatus does not make provisions for texturizing prior to single courses being stacked atop another course.